As It Should Be
by ChishioShakun
Summary: Everything had a place and a purpose. Everything would unfold in its own time. These were rules that he lived by and worked by. Sometimes though, he learned things needed to be nudged, gently pushed to their inevitable conclusion. Danny Phantom was one of those things, but nudging Phantom always had interesting and quite unexpected consequences. (One-shot series)
1. As It Should Be

I got roped into Ectober by LadyDrosselmeyer and while I do not have the time to do a story for every day of October (her original idea) I do have a few things to post, this will be the first. If I do any more really short one shots they'll be added here to keep things nice and clean.

 **AS IT SHOULD BE**

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There was something Dan Phantom hadn't counted on in all his years locked in that cursed thermos. He hadn't counted on Danny ever being stronger then him. Hadn't counted on the years making that much of a difference.

How could he have ever thought of that as a possibility!? Danny was weak, and meaningless. Danny couldn't hold it together when his family was taken from him, when everything that ever meant anything to him was stripped from him. Danny had begged Vlad to get rid of his humanity. He was a weakling, a brat. He would always be such; he could never match the greatness that was Dan phantom.

Yet, yet here they were, Danny without help, without clockwork (who was still trapped in his collapsed tower), without the humans that made him weak, and Dan Phantom facing off again. Yet it was Danny standing tall, eyes eerily indifferent to the situation and Dan, Dan couldn't believe that he was this depleted, this weak. Nothing he did made a scratch on the Boy. It was like their first encounter but in reverse, Dan begging (he'd never beg) for Danny to spare him (he couldn't recall if Danny ever begged either but he preferred to think he did). It wasn't supposed to go this way.

Years.

He'd spent years in that fucking thermos under the boot of that damned time manipulator, plotting, scheming to get his revenge, to get his future to be the one true future, he couldn't fail! But he was, right before his eyes, he was failing.

Danny was no longer the gangly 14 year old boy that lost to him, that would have become him if Clockwork had minded his own damned business. He was solid and built, powerful. Nothing about him showed any sign of weakness. His blows landed with ease of years of practice. Dan couldn't believe this was the same Danny, there was no way the pathetic brat became this, not without him, not without losing his humanity.

Yet as this battle was determined to prove, it was. Somehow his past had grown up, had gained powers that Dan wasn't even aware were possible. Somehow, somehow Danny had become stronger then Dan ever could. That was a possibility that he could never conceive, yet here it was the only possibility that mattered. The one outcome that had him beat, and almost broken before his past self.

Well, what would have been his past self.

He was no longer the future of anything, he realized. Clockwork had made sure of it, had nudged the time lines just enough, he knew Dan would never be again. The only future 14 year old Danny would ever see would be this one, this paragon of the obsession to protect, this hero. Dan would never be, ever.

"Clockwork kept you around because he saw something, knew something that made keeping you around worth it. I never agreed with him, I wanted to never see you again. You were a nightmare that was always in the back of my mind." The ghost boy paused, eye's finally taking on some sort of emotion. "I was always scared that I'd become you, despite everything. When my voice got deeper I heard you. When my body started to fill out I saw you. The normal act of growing up had me terrified because I thought I was turning into you."

Dan would cherish the fear he heard in Danny's voice in that moment, though it was a past fear because it was all he had, all he would ever have.

"Then why aren't you scared now?" Dan was more curious then he wanted to admit.

"Not sure. This right here, you being free, was my worst fear. I'd say I out grew the boogy-man, but I think, really I realized some time ago, you as my future didn't exist anymore." Danny shrugged, staring at his evil self, at his failed possibility.

Dan laughed. In all his planning and scheming, nothing had prepared him for this. Danny was no longer weak, no longer a bumbling fool.

"As I see it you have a choice here. I can lock you up in the thermos again to await whatever it is Clockwork saw or I could completely destroy you."

"You're giving me the choice?"

"Choice, is what separated me from you."

Choice.

Why did that word send chills through his core?


	2. Time Does Not Stop

Hey look I'm back with another one, in less then a week. These aren't meant to be long, which might be why i'm having an easier time writing them. Thank you guys for the reviews I've gotten so far, I wasn't exactly expecting much but the response has been good. So thank you. (Still blame you LadyD)

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Time Does Not Stop

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Time obeyed his command, bent to his will, and was generally favorable to him. At times though it was secretive, elusive, wiggled from his fingers and flowed away like sand in a broken hourglass. He knew most considered his powers to be unstoppable, and perfect. That he had knowledge of all things that were and that would be.

But that's not how Time worked.

He moved seamlessly backwards and forwards through time, but he missed things, small things; usually, things that didn't add up to the choices that would alter the entire time stream. This is how he must have missed the thermos weakening. It was outside of Time, with him in his tower. It wasn't needed until much, much later. The conditions for when Daniel needed it were long in the making and they'd only begun the first act. He'd put it out of his mind. There was nothing that could interfere with it.

But Time doesn't work like that.

By keeping the thermos in his tower he'd made a choice. He kept it in a place Time never touched but where Time moved, allowing the thermos time to begin breaking, and the entity within time to grow stronger.

The first blow was a surprise.

An event that he never saw coming, as clique as it was. He was blind it. The thermos had stopped moving ages ago. He had carelessly assumed that the entity within had accepted his fate and would wait patiently until it was time.

How naive he could still be.

He was able to counter the next blow, and the one after that, but the ghost he faced was desperate, making him unpredictable. One possibility quickly eclipsed the next, leaving blurry afterimages of possible next moves. It took only one miss judgement to get sent flying backwards, crashing through much of his tower. Dan Phantom took the advantage.

For as powerful as he was, he too was a party to the fickleness of Time, and when it needed events to play out he was as helpless as any other. He tried to hold Time, tried to take a time out, but his staff was gone, held in Phantom's hands and snapped easier then a tree branch in a hurricane.

"Not even the great Clockwork could erase me, could you?" Phantom taunted throwing the pieces of the artifact way, ectoplasm building in his hand. "You made a mistake in keeping me locked up. I will be Danny's future, there is no stopping me."

"Daniel's made his choices."

"Relying on that weak, pathetic child was your last mistake, Clockwork. I will be rid of you, as you should have gotten rid of me, and then I will break him. Clockwork. I will break your little pet and take what little power he has. I will be absolute."

"You were only ever a possibility Phantom, one of many. Daniel's choices have made you but a faded image of what could have been."

"Speak in riddles all you want you obsolete time piece, I am the victor here not you." The ectoplasm in Dan Phantom's palm grew larger and brighter. He held the hand out as he began to float backwards.

Time works in weird ways. Even knowing It as long as he had, It still surprised him. Things slowed down, almost to the point that everything was still as the blast of ectoplasmic energy rushed toward him.

He watched Dan teleport away.

He watched his tower come down around him.

He watched his existence get snuffed out.


	3. Observers Only Observe

And the third one comes in at twice the length of the last two. There was actually a lot more I wanted to write for this one but it started to seem too wordy and not really in a way that would help convey what I wanted to get across, so I cut it off where I did. To answer a couple reviews I got, yes these are all connected just not in chronological order. I mean I'm messing with Clockwork here, nothings ever that straight forward. Anyway Please enjoy.

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"Shall we let events proceed?"

"It is not for us to interfere."

"This is the path."

"We are not to decide the course of time, we are merely the observers."

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Ghost artifacts were rare and always powerful, instilling into those that wielded them, powers beyond anything a mortal had the right to dream of, and they were the very thing that would make him the most powerful being in the entire world. That was his plan.

It hadn't always been his plan though. He hadn't always sought power. He hadn't always been obsessed with the very idea of being a being so powerful that he'd transcend humanity. He hadn't always been a half-ghost abomination either.

He was looking for a way to cure himself of his affliction, back when he thought of it more as a curse then what it was, a gift, a wonderful and terrible gift just for him, and had stumbled upon the first artifact. It was long destroyed now, but it was the secret to his success after being released from the hospital. That one item was enough to wet his tongue with want so strong it almost eclipsed his need for his beautiful Maddie.

Just one, and he was hooked.

Oh but he was a planner and a schemer. Finding others wasn't so difficult, getting them though. Getting them was a different beast entirely. The ghost zone was, is, full of things a human mind could barely grasp. Yet he did. He grasped them, learned from them and ultimately defeated every obstacle the ghost-zone threw at him and got his hands on dozens of artifacts that just helped grow his powers. He stopped cursing his affliction, instead embracing his impossibility and cursing the fool who caused it in the first place. That bumbling idiot was the one to blame, oh but it was truly a gift, one Jack Fenton would pay dearly for giving him, but a terribly wonderful gift all the same.

In his search for the ghost-zones most powerful objects he'd discovered a legend of a tablet that recorded all the worlds' timelines. An artifact created by the old gods to see into the future.

How was he to resist?

How could he resist?

It was as if the world itself was giving him its nod of approval. It was kept by the beings called Observants. They were a constant in the ghost zone, much like wall decorations, ornamental but ultimately useless. He'd written them off almost as soon as he'd heard of them. They were a group of ghosts that only watched events and to his knowledge never interfered. They weren't a threat to his plans. But they might just be the key to them. Imagen knowing the future, knowing all that was to come and to be able to plan for things that would hinder him, to be able to see far into the future, to see his plans succeeding. To see himself at the peak of his rule, so powerful he'd outshine even the old gods.

He cackled and laughed to himself for weeks. Every discovery that brought him closer to finding the Observants lair, that brought him closer to seeing the timeline, made all his struggles and pains worth it. The very hunt put all his worldly possessions to shame.

It took years of planning, scheming, gentle and forceful manipulation to find their lair. Oh what a day it was. He loved when things fell right into place, loved and savored the moment of completion.

It took him longer still to find a way to infiltrate their abode. He'd not witnessed any powers from them; they remained simply floating single eyes, intent as they were aptly named to Observe. One thing he'd learned though about the ghost-zone, nothing, nothing was as it appeared to be. A door was never just a door, a docile woman was never a docile woman, and ghosts so old that no record of them existed in legend in the human world would never be without power.

Oh how he wanted their power.

And what did he find when he finally managed to sneak in the Observants lair? He found the tablet alright, the artifact that recorded all of time and history alright. He watched his creation, he watched his destiny unfold before him and he watched as Jack Fenton screwed him over again. That bumbling fool could even make an accident go right!

There were several branches to the timeline, he watched all of them. In every single one he became the supreme being he sought to be. He was all-powerful and in control of not only the human world but the ghost-zone. He was the next ghost king. In every single timeline.

Except.

Except in the one he was currently in, standing in front of the timeline artifact. And it was all that gorilla's fault, the bumbling idiot couldn't even get the accident that made Vlad Masters into Vlad Plasmius right! He wasn't entirely sure what went wrong in this timeline to prevent him from getting the power he needed from the failed portal, but it had to do with Jack messing something else up, something important, something the other timelines had that his didn't.

He was unable to study the timeline further. He was sure if he'd had just a few more minutes with the artifact, (begrudgingly it was too massive for him to take) he'd have figured it out. The Observents returned however, sooner than he had planned for, maybe they were more omniscient then he had assumed, maybe it was just this time line screwing him over more. He got out of there quickly. It would be possible to come back, in a month or two and study it more. He knew where the lair was, he knew their routines, and it would be simple.

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"Was it wise to let him in?" One said to the others as they observed Plasmius flying away.

"It was as it should be. We cannot change events" Another said turning to face its peers.

"Events were… orchestrated so that he'd not end on a path of ruin. Does this make that a possibility again?" Another spoke closing the circle made by the small group.

"He has continued down the path, it is not as dire as first observed however." The last said.

"Clockwork has his pet. That Phantom has proven he is capable of keeping Plasmius in check." The second to speak said nodding to itself.

"Yet that Phantom has his own darkness. Clockwork kept the beast he should have become locked away in his tower." The first said.

"There are signs he could still turn. Phantom is more of a threat." The third spoke looking at his peers in turn.

"Should we allow events to continue in this manner?" The first said

"We are the Observers of time. We do not interfere in the course of events. We can however have Clockwork look into the problem." The second said.

"Yes, that would be ideal. Plamius needs to turn from his dark path if he is to be the King the ghost-zone needs." The last said.

The small group disbanded, leaving the first still gazing off to where Vlad Plasmius had flown.

"And if he is not the king?" it said to itself.


	4. Rewind

Hey look another one. I think there will be one more after this and I'll call this little series complete. We shall see though. There's a lot left out that I may have more ideas for. Please Enjoy.

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He watched Dan teleport away.

He watched his tower come down around him.

He watched his existence get snuffed out.

He watched it again, and again, scrutinizing the details until he knew, to the second, when Dan would emerge from the thermos, and when the first hit would land. It was merely by chance, if he truly believed in such a thing, that he caught the subtle shift of the time stream.

Dan was never supposed to get out. The current course they were headed on, set when Daniel first captured him in the thermos, indicated that only when Daniel let him out, would he be free. Somewhere though small things had changed. Subtle things. The thermos had weakened faster than he had seen. Dan had grown stronger during his incarceration. Which seemed impossible, but here he was watching it unfold before him. Dan shattering the thermos. Dan flying at him as he remained oblivious. The first hit landing. The tower being destroyed. His core being extinguished.

The outcome was less clear. He faded, and Daniel fought Dan once again. Dan, in their first encounter, had Daniel clearly outmatched. Daniel had even technically failed. It was a consequence the boy had to live with, a burden in his heart, watching those he cared about deeply, be obliterated before him because he had failed, not once but twice. Dan was the one captured however and all was as it should be.

Maybe he had pushed events this way.

He couldn't and wouldn't say he wasn't guilty of manipulating things were Daniel was concerned. Even before the boy was born he'd nudged things here and there. It hadn't taken much to insure Vlad Masters would never see the power he desired. All of the other timelines lay in ruin because of him, but time had needed a champion. He'd set things up for the creation of such a being, though it did occur earlier then he'd planned. He'd found out quickly that nudging Danny Phantom in anyway lead to some interesting consequences. His own actions, in this regard, could have led to the very changes that allowed Dan to free himself from the thermos.

Knowing what was coming, he heard the cracking this time. It was like thin ice over a lake cracking, subtle, yet distinct. He braced for the hit.

There were a multitude of possibilities laid out before him. He could easily take Dan down, erase him from existence, rewind time to the moment just before Dan broke the Thermos and freeze it there. He knew Time though, as well as any being could, really, given Time's very nature, certain things had to happen. In this case it wasn't his role to interfere.

Dan had to be freed.

Given all the places along Daniel's timeline where his dark self waited for him to miss step, though the boy hadn't yet, this had to be where Dan Phantom emerged again. The reason why was unknown to him. Everything happened in its own time, and he'd pushed things too much as it was. He hoped that Daniel was ready to face himself again.

Dan's attack sent him flying, crashing through the screens he used to witness time. Even knowing the impact was coming, the blow disorientated him long enough for Phantom to land several more hits on him, knocking him back further.

"You thought you could keep me locked up, you and that disgustingly weak brat." Dan sneered flying at him ectoplasm pouring from his fists. "I am more then you, I am greater then _Danny_ will ever hope to be. Choosing him over me is your last mistake old man." Phantom shouted slamming into Clockwork, fists exploding with energy.

By the skin of his afterlife, he'd gotten the exact moment he needed to Time Out. He watched the wall behind where he had been; explode into dust, from his new vantage point. He gripped his staff tightly in his withered hand waiting for Dan to realize that he'd not been obliterated by that attack.

"You, an Ancient? Some greater being? I don't even have it in me to laugh." Dan said staring at the hole his attack had made. "If that takes you out then I can't wait to see what it does to Poor. Little. Danny. Pathetic." Though his voice was low and calmly menacing, his aura flowed around him in angry waves. "Pathetic."

He wanted to stop Dan Phantom were he floated, gloating over the hole that he had made. He refrained though and removed himself from his tower, distancing himself from the Phantom. The tower began to sake as he left. Dan clearly wasn't content with just extinguishing his core, as his rage spilled through the Tower ripping it apart from the inside out. He sighed. He couldn't directly interfere, but he could warn Daniel that Dan had freed himself. Things were still clouded here. Hopefully the warning would be enough for Daniel.

He watched Dan shatter the Thermos.

He watched the first hits land.

He watched time stop.

He watched his tower collapse.

He watched and studied.

He was being tested here. His actions were leading Daniel to fail, but he couldn't see how. It was frustrating and worrying.

He watched, and he'd continue to watch and nudge until Daniel succeeded.


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